What if the Future could be changed?
by Crimson1
Summary: What if Anakin at age 20, following Episode II got a glimpse of who he was destined to become before the Dark Side took him completely? It’s short and worth the read. PLEASE READ & REVIEW!


What if the Future could be changed...?  
  
A/N: As a byproduct of a very old fanfic a friend and I once thought up but never really played out to completion, as well as having just seen Episode II a few hours ago, this new fic has been born. What if Anakin - at age 20, following Episode II - got a glimpse of who he was destined to become before the Dark Side took him completely? OC warning, and you probably should wait to see the movie, because there are spoilers - naturally. However, if you want to see the movie first, please don't forget about this fic. It's short, sweet, and worth the read. PLEASE REVIEW!!  
  
  
*****  
  
  
It was over.   
  
Finally granted a night of peace and relaxation after so recent a grueling battle, Anakin Skywalker has returned to Coruscant and his chambers at the Jedi Council. He spoke little to Obi-wan upon his arrival, summoning up every mental and emotional block he could manage in order to hide his dark secret from the man that is his Master. Being so attuned to Ani, however, Obi-wan could still sense that something was greatly affecting his young apprentice. Luckily, the Jedi voiced nothing of his concerns, and allowed Anakin to retire without interrogation.  
  
Even with a night free from assignment or immediate anxiety over the actions of the Council, Anakin is not expecting a good night sleep. He is indeed headstrong and stubborn, but he still feels the burden of having betrayed the trust of the closest thing he has to a father.  
  
(Even if it does destroy us......we had to do it...we have to be together.) Ani assures himself, falling back against the bed. (Obi-wan wouldn't understand. He never understands......)  
  
Beat. A skipped heartbeat. Anakin senses an outside force nearby, one he has never felt before, and yet it somehow feels so familiar. He sits up in bed, peering out through the small windows on the door that leads into Obi-wan's room. His Master is still awake, pacing the floor while deeply in thought, but he doesn't appear to have felt the disturbance.  
  
The presence is coming from all around Anakin - a tremor, like the quivering of dimensions - and slowly a light begins to form at the foot of his bed, growing until at last taking on the shape and size of a person. When this stranger is finally whole, standing solidly before him, Anakin realizes that it is a young woman.  
  
"Hello, young padawan. Having a pleasant evening?" she smiles, speaking in a very gentle and fluid voice.  
  
Cowering back in fear against the headboard, Anakin casts a nervous glance at the door, as well as at his lightsaber on the nightstand so many feet away. "Who are you...? I demand to know! How did you get -"  
  
"Peace, young one." the intruder silences, raising a graceful hand as if to use the Force against him. She indeed does exactly that, for Ani finds he can no longer speak or move, and her power has a hold on him like giant hands gripping his shoulders. "There is no need to be afraid of me. I've only come to help you. My name is Maquir. A Jedi......as you will be one day."  
  
Slowly, the strange young woman walks around to the side of the bed and sits down on the edge, only inches from Ani's frozen position. She is quite lovely - tall and slender, with long, wavy black hair, and green eyes like the energy blade of Anakin's lightsaber. Her robes are unlike anything he has ever seen before.  
  
"What I've come for is not going to be easy for you to understand, and it may indeed be quite painful to experience." Maquir explains, reaching a hand towards Ani's face.  
  
Anakin flinches, struggling over her control keeping him silent. "...wh...what...are you going...to......do to me......?"  
  
"I'm going to show you the truth."  
  
Swifter than his eyes can catch, the mysterious woman shoots out both hands, holding them steady to hover very near his temples, and Anakin is instantly hit by a wave of images and surging emotions like empathic fire.  
  
He sees himself as he is now, smirking arrogantly, and stealing glances at his beloved Padme from across a crowded room of delegates and Jedi Knights. He sees himself fighting side by side with his Master, defending against an army in a losing battle, much like the one they fought only days before. He sees himself lying beside his wife in bed, watching her sleep, and dreaming of everything he hopes to accomplish. He sees himself with Chancellor Valorum, talking heatedly about something that frightens and excites him at the same time. He sees himself talking to another man about the very same thing, a man wearing a black robe with the hood hanging to cover half his face. He sees himself wielding a new lightsaber, a red one, and fighting against people he once considered dear friends. He sees himself angry and alone as Padme holds their newborn children in her arms, wondering when or if he will ever come home. He sees himself fighting against Obi-wan, and laughing in his old Master's face for his weakness. He sees himself with less and less of his true body as the years pass, becoming like a machine, moving at the will of his new Master. He sees himself engaging in years upon years of war and death and betrayal. He sees himself searching for an abandoned wife who fled, hiding their children from him, only to die young of a broken heart. He sees himself struggling to defeat those very same children, his own children, as they come after him to destroy the monster he became so many years ago. He sees himself dying, begging for forgiveness after a lifetime of regret he can never get back.   
  
He sees himself, and what he sees is a broken man who lost his way and allowed the Dark Side to ruin his life.  
  
Tears stream down Anakin's face as he gasps for air, reaching up trembling hands to take hold of Maquir's arms and force her away, though he doesn't have the strength to make her move. "...stop......please...stop......" he gasps out, clenching his eyes shut to banish all those horrible images and feelings of despair. "......I can't...take anymore......please..."  
  
With genuine understanding and compassion, the young woman allows him to lower her arms, and she smiles somberly as he opens his eyes to look at her with so many questions and so much pain desperate to be released.  
  
"Do you understand?" she asks in a whisper. "This was no trick or illusion. What I have shown you is your future if you allow it to happen. Only you can save the lives that will be wasted. Only you can make the choices that will effect generations to come. Do you understand? Do you understand what you will become?"  
  
Anakin nods slowly, sniffling like a child as he fights to keep his tears from continuing to fall. It's all so much for a young soul to take.  
  
"...I can't......believe I would do that...to everyone......" he expresses in lamentation, collapsing back to rest against the headboard. "...Padme......our...children....and even my Master. Obi-wan is always saying I will be the death of him, and......and I really will."  
  
Looking on sorrowfully as Anakin weeps freely and without reservations, Maquir remains silent, giving him the time he needs to grieve over what could have been, but what doesn't have to be.  
  
After the young apprentice's tears finally begin to dry, she reaches over to take his hand, holding it tenderly in her own. "I know it hurts, but you have the power to change everything you saw. It doesn't have to be that way. You are a wonderful young man with a compassionate and caring soul. Even your aggressions and fierce ambition are an asset, if used for good. Listen more to your Master, to the other Jedi, to your wife, and to the living Force around and within you. The Darkness has no place in the heart of a boy such as you. If you recognize the face of evil, you can fight it, and you will win."  
  
Rising carefully from the bed, Maquir looks down at Ani with an affectionate smile, and then unexpectedly turns as if to leave, moving back to the spot she had appeared from.  
  
"Wait!" Anakin calls, sitting up sharply, and gaining back a bit of his wavering dominance. "You can't just leave after showing me all that. Who are you really? How did you know what would happen? How were you able to show it to me at all? Why did you do it?"  
  
"I did it......because I could." she grins, gazing over at him from the foot of the bed, as the same light that brought her begins to glow again as if appearing from the very particles of air around her. "And because......" She pauses, almost smirking as she begins to fade away. "......one day...I'm going to marry your grandson. And I'd really appreciate it if he had the opportunity to know his grandfather."  
  
Poof. She's gone, just as obscurely as she arrived.  
  
For the briefest moment, Anakin wonders if it was all just a dream. After all, Obi-wan is still pacing in his room, not having sensed a thing, nor having heard any of the commotion that pounded in Anakin's ears through that powerful vision.   
  
But Ani knows better. The future he was shown was too real, too possible, and far too...unbearable...not to be taken seriously.  
  
(I won't let it happen.) he affirms with inspiring conviction. (I know what is coming now, and I will not be taken in by the Dark Side. For my Master, Padme, our children, and so many others I would hurt, I cannot fail. I will not! I will make you proud of me, Mother. I will make them all proud. And I will never let what happened to me when you died happen again. I promise. I am Anakin Skywalker, and no one else!)  
  
No one else.  
  
  
THE END  
  
  
*****  
  
  
Wow, not bad for a quickie, huh? I sure hope you liked it.   
  
Everytime I see a new Episode, imagining that adorable boy, Anakin Skywalker, growing up to become the most evil and corrupt man ever known, I just can't take it! I had to write this.   
  
Love and kisses to all! Please take the time to tell me what you thought.  
  
  
~Crimson~ 


End file.
